The French publishing house Éditions Lacurne in cooperation with the Rundāle Palace Museum and Dr. h. c. art. Imants Lancmanis has published the book ‘Divine Dorothée’ (Adored Dorothea) in French.
In 2018, the book ‘Dievinātā Doroteja’ (Adored Dorothea) was published in Latvian by the Rundāle Palace Museum. It was envisioned as a late tribute to Duchess of Courland Dorothea on her 250th birthday, which in 2011 was marked by an exhibition of the same title curated by the Museum. The exhibition reviewed the most significant events in Dorothea’s biography presented alongside her portraits and testimonies of her contemporaries, thus giving a voice to Dorothea and to those who knew her. The book follows in suite: the author Imants Lancmanis’ narrative merely sketches transition from one direct speech to another, from one station in Dorothea’s life to the next. Quotations like traffic posts mark the passage of her life, lived at the turn of centuries when the old feudal world began to collapse and the French Revolution and Napoleon’s epoch marked a new world order.
The French edition has been supplemented with new facts and pictures and could be considered as an updated version of the book. The book was translated from Latvian into French by Dita Podskočija.
The French edition will only be available to order and purchase from the publisher’s website, while the Latvian edition can be purchased at the Museum’s Ticket Office.